Bainbridge Island Press is an independent poetry publishing house located on Bainbridge Island on the Puget Sound of Washington state founded on Dec 25th 2022.  Despite the name, the story actually begins several months earlier in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Tamarah had completed her Masters at Harvard during the pandemic and in 2022 was finally able to "walk" in her Harvard graduation with all the associated pomp and circumstance.   As Ben & Tamarah enjoyed a celebratory dinner at a nearby restaurant we basked in the glory of her accomplishment but also reflected on how challenging and frustrating the entire experience of publishing is for so many authors.  Then and there we resolved to get off the sidelines and get in the game to both understand the challenges of publishing from "the other side" and to provide new opportunities for poets that she didn't have.  Later that year, on Christmas morning, Tamarah opened her present to find the incorporation documents for Bainbridge Island Press inside.

We are dedicated to being a traditional poetry publisher that provides opportunity for as many new voices as possible.  In 2023 we published 2 individual collections, 1 community journal, and the inaugural edition of our journal POETICS, which pays homage to our roots dating back to Aristotle's historic work of the same name.  In 2024 we published 4 collections, an anthology, and another edition of POETICS.  We also introduced XPRESS, our initiative to bring Chapbooks into the 21st Century as a means to provide more opportunity to new voices than ever before. 

The future of poetry is bright and we're excited to be on the forefront of creating a better and more accessible world for all so that we can connect incredible writers with amazing readers.

Our Team

Tamarah Rockwood CEO & Editor

 

Tamarah Rockwood is a writer, speaker, educator, leader, and mother.   She obtained her Master’s degree in Creative Writing and Literature from Harvard University and is the Founder and CEO of Bainbridge Island Press, an independent poetry publishing house.  A successful writer herself, she recently released her second book of poetry, A, B.,  and is currently working on a major novel.  In addition to poetry and prose, she has written several screen and stage plays, for venues from local community theater to professional screenwriting.  Tamarah has become a leader in Washington’s Kitsap County organizing several local poetry events and communities, including Ars Poetica which brings poets and artists together, and Poetry Corners, an annual celebration of poetry and poets on Bainbridge Island.  She has served as Chairwoman of the Literary Committee at the prestigious Rainer Club in Seattle, having also served as the Wine Committee Chair.  She is the current President of ANHW, the Alumnae/i Network of Harvard Women through the Harvard Club of Seattle. She lives on Bainbridge Island, WA, with Ben and their five children.

Ben Rockwood COO & Designer

 

Ben Rockwood leads operations and design for BIP, on a mission to make great poetry into great works of art.  When not designing books he's the VP of Engineering & Operations at Mondoo, an IT security startup.  Previously he's led operations at other companies on the forefront of technological change including Equinix, Packet, Chef, Joyent, Sun Microsystems, and others since the mid-1990's.   He's a passionate lifelong student of psychology, philosophy and theology, which all ultimately fuel the fire of poetry.  In addition to poetry he especially loves both the Russian and American Avante Garde Post-Modern works of literature and has read almost any classic you can name.  He's enjoyed graphic design all his life and the power of words as art themselves which are the engine that moves ideas from the head to the heart.  He met his super-hot wife Tamarah at 15 and they are inseparable in their forest home on Bainbridge Island with their 5 amazing children.  He works hard not to make everything purple.